Tel'aran'rhiod
by SaikonoYume
Summary: Rand falls asleep one night and has a dream about an ephemeral woman in Tel'aran'rhiod who bears a strange message. But who is she?


Disclaimers: 

Shai'tan Herself: *clears throat and waves a sign* 

Sign: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING IN THIS STORY.

Shai'tan Herself: *waves another sign*

Sign: THE WHEEL OF TIME IS NOT MINE.

Shai'tan Herself: *waves yet another sign*

Sign: THE SONG IS NOT MINE, EITHER.

Shai'tan Herself: *you guessed it, another sign*

Sign: IF YOU GUESS WHO THE WOMAN IS, YOU GET A COOKIE.

Shai'tan Herself: *yet again, she holds a sign up*

Sign: I LOST MY VOICE.

Seth: And we aren't rejoicing this… why?

Selene: Because we're decent people.

Seth: …Right… Of course we are…

_Tel'aran'rhiod_

Darkness filled his bedchamber, swallowing all the light that came through the shuttered windows, which wasn't too much anyway. The moonlight was pale and silvery, what little he could see, as it fell across his floors and bed. Rand, alone in his room, for once without Aviendha or guards, lay staring at the black ceiling. He couldn't seem to sleep this night, and Lews Therin constantly gabbing in the back of his mind did little to help him along the road to sweet dreams. The insane man alternated babbling mindlessly and shouting for his long dead wife. The spaces of blessed silence that Lews Therin sometimes had became closer and closer until they were almost completely gone.

            It was when the words ran together in a continuous stream that Rand snarled harshly. The snarl shut Lews Therin up immediately, the sound of it too animal for a human throat. Rand didn't seem to notice the animalistic sound that his voice had made, and if he had heard, he would not have cared. Slowly, warily in case Lews Therin awoke, he closed his eyes. Sleep came quickly along a breeze and she drew close to him. Her fingers ran down the man's body, calming him, and gradually sleep came over him.

.o0O@O0o.

A strange, sweet melody drifted through _tel'aran'rhiod_, sounding of breezes and Light-blessed voices, as Rand came into being there. Soft, damp grass was beneath his feet, and he kneaded his toes in it, reveling in the soft feeling against the soles of his feet. The sound of a waterfall rang through the world, which was otherwise still except for the strange song, invisible behind a curtain of thick, strangely warm fog.

            Fog drifted lazily away from itself as the strange melody grew louder. A woman's shape appeared through the dimness the obscuring fog caused, twirling closer and closer to him. She was clothed in a gown that looked as the moonlight did when it found its way through his shutters. Rand felt a blush rise to his face as he wondered how little the dress truly concealed, and if it really was only moonlight glinting off her skin creating the illusion of clothing.

            The woman's body twisted in circled, her arms waving gracefully to the sides as much to balance herself as to add to her dance, and her long legs elegantly moved beneath her, carrying her this way and then that, always ending with toes pointed. The strange melody, it seemed, was coming from around her, and hers was the Light-blessed voice singing. Rand's heart stopped as he listened to the song. It came from somewhere no less than the deepest part of her heart and soul, he could hear it in her voice, and she sang it for one person, he knew. That one person was him.

            "Come with me in the twilight of a summer night for a while." Her voice was clear as crystal and tinkled and echoed strangely in the air. She beckoned to him with a slim hand, and he found himself taking a step towards her. Then another. Another. Again, another. He stood at her side, then, and she smiled as she danced a slow circle around him, moving behind him. He felt her leaning close to him as she sang into his ear, "Tell me of a story never ever told in the past."

            The fog that seemed endless and eternal, perhaps even omnipotent, dissipated even more than it already had until Rand could see that he was standing in a wide clearing in a mountain forest. It was twilight, the world caught between the brilliance of daylight and the darkness lit only by pale moon and starlight. A waterfall nearby crashed into the pool of water at his feet, spraying him and the ephemeral woman with a light sheen of water. 

            A hand wrapped around him from behind, and a head leaned on his shoulder, silken hair even less substantial than the moonlight spilling around his chest. Nowhere else did he feel her presence against his body, save for the hands around him, the head, and the hair.

            "Take me back to the land/Where my yearnings were born/The key to open the door is in your hand/Now fly me there." She slid her hand over and down his arm like a lover's sweet caress, taking hold of his own hand.

            Cold metal pressed into his palm and he looked down at a small, strangely shaped _ter'angreal_. Her hand pulled from his and point forward, towards a place only a short distance from where they stood. He followed her pointing with his eyes. A wind had began in the place she pointed at, violently twisting around and tearing at the earth, yet for all that it came closer and closer until it was virtually all around him, it did not move a single strand of his hair. _Who is she?_

            "Fanatics find their heaven in never ending storming wind/Auguries of destruction be a lullaby for rebirth," she sang. People who were mere shadows of themselves in the wind enveloping Rand held each other, laughing, as they were torn apart. Something looking like a fade slid past them all, destroying them, and another violent wind whipped them back together.

            Suddenly, the winds vanished. Rand stood in a paradise like none he could ever have hoped to imagine. He felt the woman's body push closer, he chest pressing into his back; her hands hold each other around his waist. He was sure at any moment he would fall through those delicate arms. "Consolations, be there/In my dreamland to come…" She took both his hands, one of hers pressing the _ter'angreal_ into his skin, and the other causing his nails to press into his palm until it bled. "…The key to open the door is in your hand/Now take me there."

            She pushed the hand whose palm had been pierced with nails to the one with the _ter'angreal_. She forced them together so that the blood soaked the small object. Her entire body fell against him as she sang, "I believe in fantasies invisible to me/In the land of misery I'm searching for a sign/To the door of mystery and dignity/I'm wandering down and searching down the secret sun."

            A door, barely opaque, appeared before him. In the center was a golden sun with a closed eye. The eye seemed on the verge of opening the more Rand looked at it, and it gave him an uneasy feeling. In his hand, he could feel the _ter'angreal_ pulsing with the One Power in response to the presence of the door. _Why is she searching for a door…? A door of mystery and dignity… Who ever heard of such a thing? What can be gained? _

            He felt her pull away and the door began to fade. She held him still from behind, her hands on his jaw. "Come with me in the twilight of a summer night for awhile/Tell me of a story never ever told in the past."

            Rand whirled, grabbing her wrists. Her head hung by his ear so he couldn't see her face. The rest of her body floated upwards on a forty-five degree angle. Her cheek brushed his and he felt his heart pound. He _knew_ this song. He knew her. But, yet, the two were not peaceable in his memory.

            "Take me back to the land/Where my yearnings were born…" The land changed back to the forest on the mountain with the fog and waterfall. "The key to open the door is in your hand/Now take me there…"

            She pulled away, holding the sides of his face lightly. He stared at her, clothed in moonlight as she was. Not Lanfear. Not Mieran, who _was_ Lanfear, but… _Who?!_

            "…to the land of twilight."

            Rand watched her face carefully, details becoming increasingly familiar. He was beginning to recognize her… Somewhere in his memory, he was beginning to remember her.

            Wings, brilliant, white, and feathered, burst from her back. She floated further away, her eyes smiling and kind. Full lips parted as she became less substantial, and words were formed on them. 

            …I…

            …am…

~Fin~

Shai'tan Herself Oooh… Do you hate me now? Tell me, who do you think she is? Heehee… You'll never guess this one! But, if you do, you'll get a cookie!


End file.
